Microsoft is promising to get cut and paste into Windows Phones later this month, a delay brought on by the problems experienced by Samsung users with the last update.
The news comes in what is supposed to be an open and honest blog posting from Eric Hautala – Microsoft's general manager of customer experience engineering. The …

I'm sure

...that this will descend and not before time, into who's got a bigger wanger in due course (iPhone vs Android vs WP7 vs dogs vs elephants and vs WebOS) but I'm glad the update is still on the way, WP7 is a nice system (my opinion, not a certified fact, like most opinions except those from people who shout the loudest which are indeed certified fool proof fact...) and the update will be some welcome polish.

But I never understood why some people can get so vitriolic about an operating system they don't use. I have no problem with people using Android, or iPhones etc., that's great, you know what, I'm so made out for you on that, but the slagging match that always ensues is just the micro wars of the 80s, Amiga vs ST, Mac vs PC.

Maybe this a plea that this discussion is about Microsoft's ineptitude over this update process, not about my wang is so massive because I have an Android phone and your wang is puny and big time FAIL w00t because you use an iPhone, or WP7 or whatever.

re: But I never understood

People are trying to save naive punters from falling into the "it's Microsoft so it must be OK" trap that has afflicted the desktop and SME server for so long. In the case of WP7 where MS doesn't have a large established user base it's seen as doubly important that they shouldn't gain market share, and thus credibility. So every screw-up is funny and encouraging, except to the fanbois and shills (because there are surely no genuine satisfied Microsoft phone users out there :-)

Wait, no Cut & Paste?

Nope

Not at the moment they can't, it's a pretty surprising first release omission for a 2010/11 Smartphone. And don't give me that "in 2007 an iPhone couldn't" pony, Apple like them or not (and I'm exactly an Apple lover, more a sceptic who uses a Mac laptop, but a Windows desktop) changed the whole course of smartphones with the iPhone in 2007 so you can excuse them for this. Of course, I don't own an iPhone, I just can't get on with them for some reason.

That all said, there are few times where I have genuinely needed copy and paste, the most obvious one is when someone texts you an email address and you need to add it to a contact, that would be handy.

My previous Nokia 5800 could also do this; but given how much in my opinion MS has got right with WP7, I'm willing to give them a bit of slack but they need to get their act together. I think so long as MS are in for the long haul with this OS, and that they get their act together over updates, they'll have a good platform, maybe never the "number one" but who cares, it's an alternative and I am glad of choice.

email from SMS works

Vicky, I just had someone SMS me an email address, which gave me three options - either send an email, search contacts, or save as new contact.

The only time I've needed C+P was when I got an email with a tracking number for a parcel, which wasn't hyperlinked, so I had to transcribe it onto the website. Brought back horrible memories of my first ever mobile phone where you couldn't send SMSes to phonebook entries - you had to provide the number.

I have to take the jeers though, as I was one of the people who was laughing at iPhones' lack of c+p when it first came out. Karma's a bitch!

Radio Side

You can get a whole lot of fun stuff from the radio side. As a part of a former job I had with a recently merged non colourful network I had access to some of the logs from cell sites for assisting in billing disputes... "Okay sir, so you say you didn't make that call... Our network detected you were in your home postcode at the time, using the phone we provided you, and walking north at the time, but you're not disputing the call you made 2 minutes earlier in the same area..."

Do what??

Is this true? I'm sure that they have to be approved to be switched on (self-applied sticky CE logo), and I'm sure that the GSMA makes sure that they all play nicely.

But the operator has to approve the handset? So after I've bought my handset (from the manufacturer), how do I get the network to approve it? Who do I talk to? Will I have to send it off to them? Can they refuse to approve anything that wasn't sold by them with enormous mark-up and comes with a lifetime contract I have to sign in blood?

Huh

cut-n-paste

the real reason for the delay - MS fired all the Windows 3.0 programmers years ago, and is only now realizing that they have no one remaining at MS knows how to replicate that (apparently very tricky) functionality.

Beat me to it

!CutPaste

I guess I will never understand why one of the oldest mobile OS functions is absent in these new "smartphones". I have been critical of Apple because of this and it's only fair to point out how short sighted this makes Microsoft look. After the iPhone was released, everyone knew it didn't have C&P functionality, despite Blackberry having this function for years previous. Why then would MS release a new smartphone OS without this function? And to try and add such an intricate function that has to examine and manipulate bits and bytes on a granular level, after-the-fact, seems a bit counter-productive and will lead to much patch-work and frustration.

SMS to numbers only

"customer experience engineering"

They actually engineer it to be this bad? Presumably it's a sort of 21st century human version of 17th century "Bear baiting". By the same token, anyone still trying to shoehorn cut and paste onto their mobile OS in 2011 really should consider starting their press releases with "In the year of our Lord...".

Funny thing is...

As an owner of a Samsung Omnia 7 and having used it I actually prefer it now to my iPhone 4. I did the update when it came out and had no problems. It is a nice operarting system.

Anyway, a friend had an Omnia 7 delivered last week and it already has the cut and paste update installed on it. He is quite happy cutting and pasting, so I don't quite understand what the delay is about...